Walter Dellinger, Former Acting Solicitor General, Dies

February 16, 2022 by Dan McCue
<strong>Walter Dellinger, Former Acting Solicitor General, Dies</strong>
Former Acting Solicitor General Walter Dellinger III. (Photo by Dan McCue)

WASHINGTON — Walter Dellinger III, the celebrated constitutional scholar who became almost as famous for biking to work in Washington, D.C., as he was for arguing landmark cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, has died.

The former acting U.S. solicitor general during the Clinton administration passed away on Wednesday in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. He was 80. 

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain saluted his longtime friend in a tweet Wednesday, saying he was “mourning the loss this morning of the great Walter Dellinger — wise counselor, steadfast advocate, teacher and public servant — a great mentor to me and so many others — and a kind friend.”

During the Clinton administration, Dellinger headed up the influential Office of Legal Counsel that advises the attorney general on often sensitive legal and policy issues and served as the acting solicitor general.

While serving as acting solicitor general during the 1996-97 term of the high court, he personally argued nine cases, more than any of his predecessors in over two decades at the time. 

Dellinger was also an emeritus professor at the Duke University School of Law, where he had been a faculty member since 1969.

His most recent act of public service was being a member of the White House’s special commission studying the Supreme Court and potential changes in its operation. He was one of about two dozen scholars who authored the 294-page paper that laid out the arguments for and against expanding the Supreme Court, among other issues.

And it was only two weeks ago that his byline appeared above an opinion piece in The New York Times defending President Biden’s intention to nominate a Black female jurist to the Supreme Court.

Noting that many Conservative commentators had criticized the plan, saying it had elevated “skin color over qualifications,” Dellinger pointed out that there was “a long and important tradition of presidents taking into consideration the demographic characteristics of prospective justices — including geographic background, religion, race and sex — to ensure that the Supreme Court is and remains a representative institution in touch with the varied facets of American life.” 

“More fundamentally, our history shows that the process of reaching out to expand the personal backgrounds of the justices has often produced stellar jurists who made historic contributions to the court and our judicial system,” Dellinger wrote.

Later in the same piece, Dellinger said all the Black women President Biden is reportedly considering for the Supreme Court “are all well respected and highly qualified potential nominees with sterling credentials.” 

“Regardless of race, they should and very likely would be found on any Democratic president’s short list,” he said before concluding, “There are approximately 25,000 Black female attorneys in America. There is every reason to believe that President Biden’s nomination process will benefit by focusing on that extraordinary group for the next justice of the United States Supreme Court.”

While working as acting solicitor general, Dellinger argued several high-profile cases before the high court, including those dealing with Paula Jones’ right to sue a standing president, physician-assisted suicide and proposed curbs on protests outside abortion clinics.

Perhaps his most famous case was District of Columbia v. Heller, which he lost and in which the Supreme Court held the Second Amendment guarantees an individual’s right to possess firearms independent of service in a state militia and to use firearms for traditionally lawful purposes, including self-defense within the home.

In later years, he served as a partner in the Washington office of the O’Melveny law firm.

But perhaps the most enduring image of Dellinger was that of him riding a bike to and from the White House, the Justice Department and the Supreme Court, a practice he began when he first arrived in the nation’s capital in 1993.

In an April 2020 profile, he told Bicycling magazine, “I think people who don’t bike underrate how much fun it really is.

“Just going out from my busy day to do an errand on my bike mixes up the day. You get fresh air, some exercise and it’s fun,” he said.

And in recent days, his lively personality was on full display on Twitter.

During the Super Bowl he tweeted, “The UBER Super Bowl Ad is reprehensible.  

“An entire ad of people eating or swallowing dangerous substances! At times a small line across the bottom: ‘prop food, do not drink liquid soap’. What are you thinking UBER!?  Children, college students watching [the] eating of diapers, etc?” Dellinger said.

A few days earlier he noted, “Embattled British PM Boris Johnson has a new communications chief, who said on his first day on the job that the PM ‘is not a complete clown.’  

“Wow. Let’s not go overboard defending the boss,” he added.

Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue

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